What Could Have Been
by bardsgrl4evr
Summary: NF! Contains little language, revolves around day of reckoning and recovery, with the sentinels. Rogue does some recollection. NF! You know the drill RR


"Rogue, hurry up! We're like going to be late for school," he voice of my old high school roommate ricochet through the walls of my mind as I wandered around the barren halls of the mansion that belonged to the late Charles Xavier.

Normally this line would be smothered by the chatter and movement caused by the rest of the inhabitants of Xavier's Institution of Higher Learning for Gifted Youngsters. But now it echoed passed the bare walls, ringing down the empty halls, filling every crack and nook with the young girl's bright, perky voice. It had been weeks since any brightness or perkiness would dare fall within two miles of the deserted mansion.

Kitty had been one of the first to die for the old man's cause. Nearly three months had passed since the attack had occurred. The first attack with the Sentinels. Definitely a day no one would sure forget, I know I won't, that's for sure. Kitty, Kurt, and Bobby, the three closest friends I had established within the X-Men, were the three killed during the battle itself. I wasn't there to save them, to protect them, to keep them from harm.

Kitty was like a little sister to me the way she always wanted to bond with me and swap gossip at all hours of the night. Kitty was probably what I would have become had I not been cursed with a mutated gene.

Bobby, although he was one of the more annoying new students, he was the one who kept the mood light whenever we were called out to battle, Kurt did so as well, but Bobby was the main guy. He knew how to put a smile on anyone's face, even mine, although I would never admit that to anyone else.

Kurt. What can I say about Kurt? He was blood, and that bond was probably what kept the two of us from totally leaving the X-Men. Neither one of us was so cold to leave their own family behind while they chose a different road of life. That's what stopped me from returning to the Brotherhood after Jean's power surge. It was the only thing that stopped me.

On more than one occasion I tried to talk the fuzzy elf into going with me. Amanda had dumped him and I knew he happened to like Wanda at the time, who was currently residing under the Brotherhood's roof. But of course he always refused. He said something about Xavier giving him a chance to pass as a normal person thereby leaving him in his debt eternally. Personally I figured I paid my debt to him and society simply by fighting the bad guys for as long as I did.

So anyway, Trask apprehended over half of the remaining students, including little Miss Jean Grey herself, of course that led to our fearless leader being captured as well because we all know he could never survive with her by his side, what a pansy. After Mr. and Mrs. X-Men were grabbed, it was only a matter of time before the rest of them started dropping like flies. Jean, Scott, Evan, Sam, Ray, Rahne, Amara, Jamie, Ororo, Fred, Todd.

Lance was in shambles at the time. You know because Kitty had been shot down. He wasn't going down without a fight. And fight he did, until the end. Trask had foreseen enough into the future to have some tranquilizers on hand, quite a bit I might add. He needed a box full of them just for Lance to start get groggy, he was pumped to the brim with fury and adrenaline. As he started to show signs of defeat, Trask's new robot hit him with most of his fire power.

Trask was under the impression that Lance was one of the two most powerful mutants he had to deal with at the time, and he was right. Got to give the guy credit for that, the only problem was he thought Mr. X-men himself (Cyclops) was the second. He was wrong, dead wrong. Ask anyone (minus Jean and Scott) and they'll tell you who the most powerful mutant at the time was and if I were in a condition to fight, I would have given them my famous one-two. But I wasn't, and for good reasons too.

I was attempting to round up the fallen fighters, before that sorry excuse for a tin can gooed them. Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. That's right, little Ms Anti-social acting like a flippin nurse, running around the compound checking the conditions of my comrades. I didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. I was kneeling by Kurt – reading his last rights – hey he was Catholic, plus after the hell I had put him through, it was the least I could do. I felt the presence before I saw it, thanks to Xavier's sorry-excuse for training, and spinning around I found myself face to face with the man himself, Trask, that evil, evil man, was behind the Sentinels.

He created them, he gave them life, and he sent them out to kill. He knew the likely hood of the Sentinels following his every whim and wish was as likely as humans and mutants getting along peacefully. So I was pretty upset at him, I mean other than the fact Kurt, Kitty, and Bobby had all died at his hand, he was the reason Logan was missing all that time, when I –eh we needed him most. Plus he had treated Logan like a flipping test dummy, trial and error, against his tin-can monster. And face-to-face we confronted each other.

He underestimated me, by advancing towards me with no guards; and I underestimated him by thinking an ass like him couldn't bring me down.


End file.
